Whew!

I am having one of those days when being here quietly with Sam, catching up on laundry and giving the bathrooms and kitchen a good clean sounds just right. Thick clouds have rolled in to replace the springlike sun and warm breezes of earlier this week, and I feel tucked in and grateful.

Busy weeks like this one make me realize again that we live at a very non-typical slow pace compared to many of our contemporaries, and that suits our family and personalities to a T. This week has been full to the brim of good things, surely, but we are all tired and worn and ready for rest. My mommy instinct has always said to keep things chill, and it is nice to realize that it fits us well.

But I would not trade away one morsel of the full plate of this week. We began with a bang, with the birth of our new nephew on Monday evening! He is precious and dear as all babies are, but we hold him extra close because his mom and dad had a long road to see his little face.

Tuesday brought the shoot here at the house for an ad for our town's minor league baseball team. A friend of ours was art directing the project, and needed a retro kitchen. The cabinets we painted but did not replace when we moved in, and the charcoal and cream diagonal checkerboard tile John laid fit the bill. They hauled in an old gold refrigerator and a little boy arranged magnets on it. Very nostalgic feel. I will look at the "simplest" ad differently from now on. I think at one point there were ten or twelve people here to make it happen, and with our furniture askew and the dishes from my china cupboard piled everywhere, it looked like a cast of thousands. Of course I was drooling over the photography equipment. So they swept in, and about an hour and a half later they were gone and I was putting cups back on hooks. John had whisked Joshua to his art class and Sam to the library, so when they returned, it was to our peaceful home and pizza before a visit to meet their new cousin.

Yesterday brought my final contracted photo shoot for a client. About that I feel a deep thankfulness for the experience of recording the growth and change of children and the love of families, but it was time, to acknowledge that my art, my passion for photography has gone in a different direction. I will continue to photograph a select few kids and families now and then, as favors for family or for a little income, but as a formal business, I am done. I have learned a lot, and much of that can serve me in my pursuit of still lifes, landscapes, and other "art shots."

So home has returned to normal, and the weekend is coming with no plans, which sounds utterly delightful to me. It is good to be back here, thinking of nothing more taxing than a basket of ironing and a big salad for dinner. Wishing everybody a peaceful day!